NFL Mobile redesigned for 2013, blocks root users

The official NFL app for Android has been updated this afternoon with tons of changes. Now that football is here (finally!) we all need an app to stay up to date with the latest news, scores, and highlights. It appears to be replacing the Verizon NFL Mobile app, and the official NFL (2011, 12, 13) one has simply been renamed NFL Mobile, and aside from a nice redesign it’s all bad news.

The developers of the app decided to drop the yearly re-name system where they titled the app after each year for that season, and instead will simply call this NFL Mobile. That’s presumably why Verizon’s NFL Mobile app, that’s been around for years, was renamed to NFL Mobile 1.0. So yes, this just got even more confusing. This latest app will tell you to uninstall the old version, which is still on the Play Store oddly.

Even more confusing is how the NFL’s app went from version 3.7 to 8.0 with this mornings update. Seems they’ve been doing some testing, and decided to jump right to version 8 for this season. That aside, the new app actually looks extremely awesome. There’s tons of content from NFL Network, which is nice but a subscriber like me still needs to pay Verizon $5.99 a month too. So I won’t get to reap the benefits of this new app. Taking cues from Verizon’s version, this app will do it all. News, alerts, scores, updates, highlights, and even let you manage your NFL.com Fantasy Football Team. They blend both apps into one.

Well, you might be able to do all of that with the app. So long as you’re using a stock device. They’ve blocked every root user from using the app. Not just streaming parts either for piracy reasons. If you’re rooted this app simply won’t work at all. I guess you’ll need to use Yahoo or ESPN for Fantasy Football this year.

So for the millions or regular NFL app users, and all those Verizon NFL Mobile users. We now have one app, it does it all, but blocks rooted users outright. I guess I’ll have to use this app with my tablet only, since all my phones are rooted. It’s a pretty good update otherwise, so check it out below. Go Packers!